Peter Bennett, Legend Championship Driver
Born: June 1 1994
Hometown: Cromwell CT
Peter Bennett, a first generation driver from Cromwell, CT, has had great success throughout the Northeast. With 4 Legends championships and 1 karting championship to his name, Peter has proven to be a competitive no matter what he gets behind the wheel of. More impressively, Peter’s passion for racing goes beyond the race track, as he has become a self taught mechanic, maintaining and setting up his own race cars for each race. Peter’s racing aspirations remain high as he has put together a rigorous 2019 schedule. The stout competition is what pushes Bennett to achieve new limits, after all, competition is what he loves most about racing. This year he will be racing multiple National Qualifier events and high purse events attracting many high level national competitors.
Peter showed an interest in racing after watching NASCAR races on TV at an early age. His racing career started out in 2001, racing Quarter Midgets at the Silver City Quarter Midget Club in Meriden, CT and Little T Speedway in Thompson, CT. At just 7 years old, Peter and his mother, Donna, raced almost every Saturday and Sunday over the summer during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Though his mother, admittedly, wasn’t the best at setting up Peter’s quarter midget, he was able to have 2 very successful seasons and win multiple races. Unfortunately, after the 2002 season, they packed up and moved across the country, forcing them to sell the quarter midget and get out of racing.
It wasn’t until 2010 when Peter returned to racing at the Nutmeg Kart Club in Berlin, CT racing a flat kart. Peter, at age 16, purchased a kart with little knowledge or experience. He was forced to learn everything on the fly now that he was thrust into a competitive adult racing class for the first time. Peter finished 3rd in the final season standings in the adult clone division and picking up rookie of the year honors in the adult division. Half way through Peter’s 2nd season, his talent was spotted by racer and parts vendor Dave Tracy. Dave invited Peter to his shop to personally setup his kart. The following race, Peter earned his first career karting victory and went on to win 3 of the final 4 races of the 2011 season.
From 2012-2016, Peter moved up into the Animal Lites division driving a kart owned by Dave Tracy. Their partnership blossomed into a friendship that lead to multiple wins and a track championship in 2015. The tandem were also able to make their way to the WKA Dirt Kart Nationals in Daytona in 2015 and 2016. Dave taught Peter important racing lessons both on and off the racetrack including racecraft, patience, sportsmanship, and perseverance. One of the most important things Dave was able to instill in Peter was how to setup and meticulously maintain a kart at a championship level. To this day, Peter credits much of his success to the lessons learned from Dave.
During the off-season in 2010, Peter began to race through the online simulator iRacing. iRacing afforded Peter the ability to earn unlimited seat time with multiple different cars and tracks around the world. In 2013, Peter earned a Pro license and eligibility to race in the 16 race iRacing World Championship series. This is the premiere series offered on iRacing’s service available to only 50 of the best drivers in the World out of their 40,000 active members each year. This series on iRacing has earned NASCAR sanctioning and is recognized as an official NASCAR series. Peter finished 7th in this series in his first year and won the season finale at Homestead Speedway. Peter qualified for the series again in 2014 and 2016 before retiring form iRacing to focus on a new racing adventure in 2017.
In December of 2016, Peter purchased a Legend car, planning to race full time at the Waterford Speedbowl in both their Wednesday and Saturday night seasons. After the Waterford Speedbowl had a delayed opening in 2017, Peter elected to run the Saturday night season at Bethel Motor Speedway. The Waterford Speedbowl opened at the end of June and Peter elected to run the Wednesday night Waterford Speedbowl season concurrently with the Saturday night season at Bethel Motor Speedway. Though it was much more work than he thought it would be, Peter stuck to his commitment. After winning his first Legends race in only his 3rd race ever at the Waterford Speedbowl, Peter was living his dream. He went on to finish 3rd in the Waterford Speedbowl standings after incurring a midseason DNF and he was able to win the final race at Bethel Motor Speedway and clinch the Legends track championship in his rookie season.
Peter set high expectations for himself in 2018 after closing the year in 2017 with 7 straight top 2 finishes. Peter was able to race both the Wednesday and Saturday night seasons at the Waterford Speedbowl. His performance improved drastically in 2018 and he had one of the most dominant seasons on record, winning 12 of 26 feature races. The highlight of his season came on June 30th when he won the biggest Legends race of the year. The Legends Summers Showdown, hosted by the Waterford Speedbowl, attracted multiple competitors and previous Speedbowl Champions. Peter came out victorious, finishing 1-2 with Jason Palmer, a dominant driver in the late 2000s at the speedbowl who he had looked up to when he was looking to get back into racing. He ended the season by earning both Wednesday and Saturday Legends track championships, becoming only the 6th driver in Speedbowl history to complete such a feat. To cap it off, he closed the Speedbowl season with 15 straight top 2 finishes, more than doubling the streak he set to close his 2017 rookie season.
Bennett’s 2019 racing plans are still up in the air, but he knows he is looking to challenge himself once again, placing himself alongside the highest level of competition he can.
Some notable accolades and accomplishments in Peter’s racing career include:
- 6th driver in Waterford Speedbowl to win both Wednesday and Saturday Night Legends Championships in the same season (2018)
- 2018 Waterford Speedbowl Legends Summer Showdown Winner
- 2017 Bethel Motor Speedway Legends Track Champion and Rookie of the Year
- 2017 Waterford Speedbowl Legends Rookie of the Year
- First Legends win in 11th career start (July 5th 2017)
- 2013 iRacing Drivers World Championship win at Homestead
- 2013 iRacing Drivers World Championship 7th place in season standings
- 2015 Nutmeg Kart Club Animal Lites Division Champion
- 2018 Waterford Speedbowl average finishing position 1.85 in 26 races
- Current streak of 15 races finishing inside the top 2 at the Waterford Speedbowl
Career Legend Stats:
4 Championships
82 starts
16 wins
55 podium finishes
60 top 5’s
